Dame's Rocket

Sometimes called 'Sweet Rocket', 'Dame's Violet', 'Mother-of-the-Evening' and 'Wild Phlox,' 'Dame's Rocket' is has four petals per flower and in part of the mustard family.

A native to central and southern Europe (Austria, Albania, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain and Yugoslavia), it is found in hedge rows, clearings, damp meadows and other wasteland locations. The earliest listing we could find of it being sold to gardeners is in Thomas Jenkins of London, England's 1819, "A Catalogue of Hardy Herbaceous Plants."

Around this same time, David and Cuthbert Landreth began offering it to their American customers in their annual catalog. It has since been naturalized in many parts North America where it is common on cultivated lands, roadsides, thickets and open woods.

Sow in a location that receives full sun to shade with moderate to moist soils. It thrives in well-drained, moist soils. Excellent for flowerbed backgrounds, fragrant gardens, and to attract butterflies and other pollinator insects. A short-lived perennial in USDA Zones 3-9.